Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said on Sunday that an agreement to restart the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and international powers is “near.”

Iran has been in talks to resurrect the deal, technically known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, and China directly, and the United States indirectly.

“We are close to an agreement in the discussions,” Amir-Abdollahian said over the phone with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to a ministry statement.

The Iranian and US delegations in Vienna do not interact directly, but signals are sent through other parties including the European Union, which coordinates the discussions.

“We have communicated on our ideas on the remaining problems to the American side via the EU chief negotiator, and the ball is now in the US court,” Iran’s top ambassador stated.

Guterres, according to the Iranian statement, emphasised the significance of the Vienna discussions and expressed optimism that the parties would achieve a deal as soon as feasible.

After over a year of talks, the parties were on the verge of renewing the historic 2015 agreement.

However, the discussions were called off last month as Russia wanted assurances that Western sanctions imposed in response to its invasion of Ukraine would not harm its commerce with Iran.

Later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Moscow had acquired the required trade guarantees from Washington.

The JCPOA granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme, ensuring that Tehran would not be able to acquire a nuclear weapon, which it has long denied seeking.

However, the US unilateral departure from the agreement in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, as well as the reimposition of harsh economic sanctions, spurred Iran to begin withdrawing from its own obligations.

The Vienna negotiations aim to get the United States back into the nuclear agreement, notably by eliminating sanctions against Iran, and to assure Tehran’s full compliance with its obligations.

Among the major sticking issues is Tehran’s insistence that the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s military’s ideological branch, be removed from the US terror list.

Washington has reaffirmed that the sanctions against the Guards will remain in place.